Hours after remarks by Barack Obama sparked widespread speculation about extraterrestrial life, the former US president issued a clarification saying he has seen no evidence that aliens exist.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by Brian Tyler Cohen over the weekend, Obama appeared to suggest that aliens were real during a fast-paced question-and-answer segment.
Asked directly, “Are aliens real?”, Obama replied: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.”
He added that they were not being hidden at Area 51, dismissing claims of a secret underground facility and saying any such conspiracy would have had to be concealed from the president himself.
The comments were quickly picked up by news outlets worldwide, prompting headlines suggesting Obama had confirmed the existence of aliens. Time Magazine was among the publications that reported on the remarks.
Following the reaction, Obama posted a statement on Instagram on Sunday evening to clarify his comments.
“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify,” he said. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.”
Claims that the US government is concealing aliens at Area 51 have circulated for decades. In 2019, more than 1.5 million people signed up online for a plan to “storm” the site. In reality, only about 150 people gathered near the base, with the event ending quietly after a handful of arrests and later morphing into a small music festival.
Declassified documents released in 2013 showed that Area 51 was primarily used to test advanced aircraft, including the U-2 and Oxcart surveillance programmes.
The documents noted that high-altitude testing of the U-2 aircraft led to a surge in reports of unidentified flying objects, contributing to long-standing myths surrounding the base.
